60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll: Artificial Intelligence

Welcome to the 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll for April 2016. This month’s poll probes the world of artificial intelligence, a term said to be first used by pioneering Stanford professor John McCarthy more than 60 years ago. He described it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.” From those humble beginnings, machines, computers and robots have made extraordinary advances in their applications and capabilities. Whoever thought that IBM would build a computer that could defeat two of the best Jeopardy players in history? The commercial and military uses for A.I. are vast, but what about the ethics of building “smart” machines that are costing millions of people their jobs and livelihoods and could make many more obsolete in the future? Some say it will ultimately create an economic…